Fishermen's mission

As he remembers heroic, dangerous times during the Second World we join an immersive sound journey with a Cornish fisherman filled with raging seas, trawlers and lasting friendships. Listen to this soundscape to reflect on aspects of Cornwall’s role in the conflict when locals welcomed their French ‘cousins’ from across the Channel fleeing the dangers of Nazi-occupied Europe.

This content was created during COVID-19

NARRATOR IS A CORNISH FISHERMAN REMINISCING. HE IS AT FISHERMAN’s MISSION. 

Scene 1

[SOUNDS OF THE TIDE AT HARBOUR. BOATS BUMPING AGAINST EACH OTHER – SEAGULLS CRYING] [ROUSING FRAGMENT OF DE GAULLE’S BBC SPEECH TO THE FREE FRENCH. TURNS TO SOUND OF RAGING SEAS.]

Narrator:

By mid-summer, in wild weather, the Bretons arrived from across the Channel, answering General de Gaulle’s call for all Free French to start the Resistance and join the Allied forces. They sailed across in their trawlers, their tenders and their crabbers. They were brought in to harbour by a massive wave on the incoming tide, in weather as angry as they were. We knew many of the Bretons from all our lifetimes of scrapping over the fishing fields, racing the waves and drinking together at port.

Scene 2

I was just fifteen at the time.  I had always lived by the harbour and I had seen tragedy many times.  But what happened to one young French family was particularly dreadful. 

[SOUND OF WAVELETS SLAPPING AGAINST A HULL. BOAT COMING TO HARBOUR]

I will not forget the sight of that poor woman, a girl, really, standing on the harbour wall holding her baby and just falling, falling to the ground, clutching the child and falling, and the women running to her with arms outstretched…. 

The crew brought her husband’s body ashore. His face was the colour of clouds, and he looked so very young…

[SOUNDS OF BOAT AT SEA. PULLING CRAB POTS. SOUND OF CHIMING SEA BUOYS]

They had been fishing close to shore when a group of aircraft approached and started bombing them. 

[SOUNDS OF AIRCRAFT. BOMBS HITTING THE WATER]

The boat bounced around with the impacts but was not hit. The aircraft returned, flying low over the becalmed sea.  The crew took shelter as best they could, but the young skipper stood on deck, waving his arms and crying out their business. 

[MACHINE GUN FIRE]

They were just fishing….He was shot clean through the back of the head. 

I think it brought us closer…

Scene 3

[SOUNDS OF THE SEA AND SEABIRDS. BOATS MOVING ACROSS WATER]

Narrator:

My father let me come on the boat with him from childhood, and I can remember holding on to the tiller and falling in love with the feel of it. When I was sixteen, we both joined a Breton crabber on a rescue mission to France. It was wintertime and we sailed through a Westerly with huge seas.  

[SEA SOUNDS GROW WILDER. SOUND OF VERY STRONG WIND]

The mission was to rescue fourteen British airmen stranded in Brittany. We made good time and arrived at the rendezvous early. The skipper took the chance to walk to his village, just some miles up the coast. He returned before dawn and I think he had cried all the way, for his face looked ravaged, but he had managed to kiss his wife, and his sleeping children.

At day break the airmen arrived. We put them in a secret compartment below and nailed them in, tight as pilchards. 

And then, just as we were about to cast off, a German patrol came on board. 

[SOUND OF BOOTS ON DECK, FIERCE DOGS BARKING]

The dogs were fearful beasts, but they failed to sniff the airmen. The Germans went ashore, none the wiser. 

[SOUNDS OF BOAT RACING THROUGH THE SEA, SLAMMING DOWN THE WAVES]

So, you can just imagine we fair burned the engine on the way back. 

The skipper hoisted the French flag up the masthead. We arrived in a rush of weather flying the Free French colours. We were welcomed like heroes.

Harbour Men:

They’re here! They’re back!

Scene 4

[SOUNDS OF THE SEA AT HARBOUR]

Narrator:

Bastille Day! We would give them their feast day of freedom, a reminder that, in 1789 they had fought and won, and that freedom would come again.14th of July. The day began with mass at the Catholic Church and the blessing of the Free French.

[SOUNDS OF THE SEA ON THE BEACH – FLAGS FLAPPING AND SNAPPING – INDISTINCT CROWD SOUNDS – SINGING _BRASS BAND]

The Tricolour flew all over the town and harbour, with a stiff breeze and clear skies. There was singing and dancing and the children had games and competitions. There were boules, wrestling and le futbol. There were even French films shown at the cinema, and I think some courting went on there because some were walking out together in the weeks that followed.

The Mayor gave a rousing speech.

Mayor:

Be strong and of good faith! I recognise you are strangers in a strange land. I trust that next year you will be able to celebrate your national day on your own soil. And, when victory is finally achieved, France and England must stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of right and freedom. Long live Free France!

[CHEERING SOUNDS FOLLOWED BY SOUNDS OF STREET PARTY.  EATING...]

[SINGING ‘LA MARSELLAISE’, NO INSTRUMENTS]

Scene 5

[SOUND OF BOATS AT HARBOUR, THEN DEPARTING]

Harbour Men:

Goodbye! Farewell! Fair winds and a following tide! We’ll see you on the fishing grounds!

Narrator:

When it was over the Bretons packed their boats, said their goodbyes and left. There were many tears and promises of eternal friendship. Many did not return. They were left under the waves, forever lost, or in Cornish cemeteries overlooking the ocean. 

And others simply found love and stayed. My own grandchildren have Breton cousins and the family ties remain unbroken.

The tide never goes out so far that it does not return.